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This article is under construction. While it is not short, it still needs expansion as outlined in the manual of style. The article most likely needs expansion near the end of the tagged section or sections.

Episode 2: Turnabout Corner is the second case in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and follows on two months after the previous case. It marks the first official appearances of Detective Ema Skye and rock star/prosecutor Klavier Gavin, and Trucy Wright begins to take on the more prominent role of Apollo Justice's assistant. It also formally and fully introduces Justice's ability to perceive witnesses' nervous behaviors.

Two months after Apollo Justice's first case, he had already lost his job and his mentor, Kristoph Gavin. He had just been invited to come over to the famous Wright & Co. Law Offices, only to find out that it had been transformed into the Wright Talent Agency, run by Phoenix Wright's daughter, a professional magician named Trucy. Although Justice was confused at first, it was explained to him that he was in the right place, and he remembered Trucy as the girl who had given him the bloody ace in his last trial.

The reason Justice called was to meet with Phoenix, who had been taken to the hospital. Racing over to the Hickfield Clinic, Justice found Phoenix, who explained that he had been the victim of a hit and run on his way to a restaurant. A car had come at him, hit him, and driven off. Phoenix wasn't badly hurt, but he still wanted to "hire" Justice to find the guy who hit him and intended to litigate if he was successful in locating the culprit. Phoenix did say that he would soon meet a real client, though.

Panty-theft in progress.

Returning to the Talent Agency, Justice and Trucy met Guy Eldoon, who also had a problem. Someone had stolen his noodle stand. On top of that, Trucy revealed that she too was a victim; last night, someone had stolen her panties. She tried to chase him but lost sight and gave up. The girl asked Justice to help her recover her stolen underwear. Justice now had three seemingly unrelated cases, not knowing that he would end up realizing that the three cases were not unrelated after all.

Trucy and Justice went to the Kitaki Mansion, where Phoenix had been hit and run by a speeding green sports car. They met the boss's wife, Little Plum Kitaki, who was cleaning up a large amount of paint that was smeared on the front gate. A quiet young woman was also at the mansion and Trucy nonchalantly gave her a flyer to the renamed, "Wright Anything Agency". She appeared to be familiar to Plum and the Kitakis, referring to Plum as "Mother".

The pair attempted to visit the nearby roped-off People Park but were halted by the on-duty officer and his superior, a woman wearing a white lab coat. However, in spite of that, they did find a trash can near the front of the park that they could peruse. Inside they found two pieces of paint-smeared items: a pair of hospital slippers and a broken side mirror to a car. Since Trucy was only able to carry one object, the duo opted to take the side mirror. When asked why the park was closed, Plum informed them that there had been an incident in the park where gunfire was heard and a body was discovered. She went on to bemoan that not only had there been a car accident and a murder around her residence but, like Trucy, she herself had been victimized by the theft of her bloomers, which were hanging out to dry.

Next the pair ventured over to Guy Eldoon's residence on the north side of the area. Upon arriving, Trucy observed a police car that was parked in front of the "Meraktis Clinic", which was next door to Eldoon's house. Immediately upon noticing the name, Trucy recalled that her panty-snatcher had ducked into the clinic's garage during their chase. The pair picked up a leftover bowl from the noodle stand heist as evidence at the scene and talked with Eldoon. It seemed Eldoon didn't hold a high opinion of his neighbor at the Meraktis Clinic. The two went inside the Meraktis Clinic garage, where they found Trucy's lost panties inside the tailpipe of the green car parked within, which turned out to be a vital prop in Trucy's stage act (and not what Apollo had in mind when he started looking). They also located a pink cell phone under the tire of the car and found that the car itself was the one that had plowed into Phoenix as it was missing the driver's side mirror, matching the one they picked up at People Park. Their investigation of two of their incidents complete, Justice and Trucy went back to the Phoenix's office.

When they returned to the Agency, Trucy insisted that despite getting her magic panties back, she wanted the thief brought in as well. They went back to the Hickfield Clinic and caught Phoenix up on their findings and also asked about the Meraktis Clinic, which Phoenix knew as a place where the mob liked to go to get themselves patched up after a rough job. Going back to the Agency to regroup, they were met by the young woman they ran into at the Kitaki Mansion. She introduced herself as Alita Tiala and was requesting representation for her fiancé, the only son of the Kitaki family Wocky, who had been arrested for the murder in People Park. She had prepared a letter of request in order to give Justice the proper authority to represent the defendant.

The crime scene at People Park.

Now with a way to get into the park, Justice and Trucy returned and found a motorcycle parked in front. The owner turned out to be a suave gentleman in a purple coat who was addressed as "Mr. Gavin", evoking images of Kristoph Gavin for Justice. He allowed them passage into the park where they ran into the female detective from earlier. After handing her the letter of request, she introduced herself as Ema Skye but otherwise remained belligerent about allowing the attorney to investigate the scene. Frustrated, they went back to the Hickfield Clinic to solicit Phoenix's assistance, whom Skye seemed to know in some way. Phoenix explained their relationship and said he had some "white powder" that could get her on their side back at the Agency under the top hat. He also told them who the man was who let them into the park: Klavier Gavin, a prosecutor with an affinity for the rocker lifestyle.

The two claimed the powder then went back to the park, where Skye became much more receptive upon seeing it. The powder was fingerprinting powder and it was a memento left by Skye the last time she had seen Phoenix . Now more willing to help, the pair were given the full details of the crime. The victim was Pal Meraktis, a local doctor who had been shot in his right temple as he was dragging a noodle stand, which was Eldoon's missing noodle stand meaning the victim had stolen it. Further investigation of the crime scene turned up a pair of white bloomers stuffed in a nearby trash can and a knife stuck blade-first into the ground bearing Wocky Kitaki's fingerprints. Skye also passed along that there was a witness to the crime who would be testifying at the trial.

Upon being asked if they had met the defendant, Justice and Trucy said they hadn't, so they took a trip to the detention center to try and converse before visitation hours ended. Unfortunately, they arrived only mere minutes before the close of visiting hours and lost the opportunity due to the defendant talking with his father, Winfred Kitaki. Wocky appeared to be willing to take the heat for the crime, but Winfred was insistent he was being foolish. Before leaving, he told Justice he knew his son was innocent and demanded that he be given an acquittal. Justice was now locked into a trial where he had no knowledge of his client's movements or side of the story.

At the start of the trial the next day, Justice observed that Phoenix wasn't in attendance. Trucy said it was because his foot injury was still nagging him but everything would be fine as long as she was there. Wocky approached his attorney and nonchalantly restated he was willing to take the blame for the crime but once again his father called out his foolishness. As the trial began, the Judge asked Prosecutor Gavin if the demons of his affair seven years ago had led to his long absence from the courtroom, to which Gavin simply replied that he was busy with his band but was now back in order to face down the one who had bested his brother. Gavin then opened by laying out the scene of the crime and the facts as they stood. Unusually, Gavin went on to say his first witness would be the defendant himself, who would testify on his motive for killing the doctor, seemingly ending the trial before it ever really began.

Wocky Kitaki took the stand and testified that he had targeted the doctor due to a botched operation six months previously. He was out for revenge after having to go to another physician to receive treatment that Meraktis should have been able to handle himself. When pressed for the reason he had to visit Meraktis, Wocky said it was for a gunshot wound he had sustained during a turf war with the Rivales crime family. The bullet had come close to hitting his heart, but Meraktis had apparently done nothing about it, which Wocky believed meant he was covering up his inability to help him.

Stickler's description of how he witnessed the crime.

Gavin presented a recent check-up report to the court, confirming that Meraktis had knowledge of Wocky's injuries and was trying to bury them, thus reaffirming that the defendant would have had a motive. He then called his witness to the crime, Wesley Stickler, an Ivy University Department of Science and Engineering junior. Stickler testified that he was on his way back from shopping when he encountered the standoff in People Park. He said he saw the defendant holing a pistol which he used to shoot the victim in the forehead. Justice objected to this account by referencing the autopsy report, which stated that the victim had died from a gunshot to the right temple. However, Gavin responded by saying that it was probable Stickler called out to the two men during the engagement, which caused the victim to turn his head in the direction of the voice and thus exposed his temple, to which Stickler confirmed. Stickler submitted a revised testimony that took into account those details, saying the suspect had fled the scene right after the gunshot.

However, Justice argued that the pistol had no fingerprints on it, which meant that had the killer dropped the weapon and ran, there would have been no time to clean the gun. Gavin and Stickler both tried to debate the point, but Justice confirmed his claim by presenting the knife found at the scene, which did bear the suspect's fingerprints and thus proved that his hands were exposed despite the gun having no prints. Stickler was ordered to offer new testimony about the moments after the shooting. He testified that since he could neither stop the killer nor leave the scene in good conscience, he chose to use his cell to call the police, and that while he waited for them to arrive, he saw no one.

A mysterious assailant descends on the courtroom.

After pressing all of his statements (an intense look in Trucy's eyes as he did so), Justice was forced to conclude that Stickler never stated a contradiction to the evidence. Just then, a man in a top hat ambushed Trucy and took her hostage at knifepoint. He demanded a twenty minute recess. As he vanished, Trucy could be heard telling Justice to meet her in the defendant lobby. Left without a choice, the judge permitted the recess.

As Justice returned to the lobby, he found Trucy alive and well. But the "assailant" he saw wasn't there -- in fact, this assailant was not even human. In reality, this masked "man" was none other than "The Amazing Mr. Hat", an elaborate wooden playdoll that Trucy somehow kept inside her body. She adjusted Mr. Hat to make it appear that an unidentifiable man was holding her at knifepoint. Trucy then explained to Justice that Stickler had an odd habit of fiddling with his book.

As court resumed (with everyone but Justice left in the dark as to what the kidnapping scene was about), Justice re-examined Stickler's testimony. He found that Stickler, as Trucy told him earlier, tended to fiddle with his book at certain times. During the bit of his testimony where he said he "used his cell phone", Justice perceived this habit and called it out. Presenting the broken mirror in the process, Justice got Stickler to confirm the pink cell phone he possessed -- the one he had found in the garage -- was Stickler's, and that Stickler had used a public pay phone alternatively.

Then, as Justice cross-examined Stickler's final testimony, where he acknowledged using a public payphone since he "accidentally" lost his phone -- he noticed that Stickler claimed to have seen a sign with the word NOODLE on it; but that wouldn't be possible from the angle that Stickler had allegedly seen the scene from. Rather, Stickler would have seen the word ELDOON if he had been on that side; since he saw the word NOODLE, he must have been on the reverse side. However, this opened up a huge contradiction; if Stickler had seen the crime from that angle, and the victim had turned his head to look towards him as claimed, why had he been shot in the right temple and not the left?

Then, Trucy pointed out that considering the movements of Stickler, he was the one who had stolen the panties. Trucy had chased Stickler and he had hidden in the Meraktis clinic garage. That was where he had dropped his phone and stuffed away the panties into the car's pipe. Stickler eventually confessed to this; he claimed that as a Wonder Bar regular, he had become profoundly fascinated with how Trucy's panties pulled off unbelievable tricks (citing how once, Trucy pulled a full-sized tire out of them). As a highly intelligent student, he was determined to find the panties and analyze them himself, apparently to such a degree that he was willing to resort to a serious crime.

The first day of the trial ended with no verdict; as Stickler was sent to the Detention Center, the judge ordered both sides to further investigate the scene and hopefully solve the contradictions of the case.

After the day's proceedings, Justice and Trucy returned to the agency to discuss the day's events. As they were talking, Alita Tiala entered and thanked Justice for his defense, mentioning her upcoming wedding the following month. She said she had met Wocky while working and that she wasn't bothered by marrying into the Kitaki family, but didn't want to explain the origin of their relationship, simply saying it was something that happened at her work. She also mentioned that Winfred had announced recently he was attempting to shift his family's assets into legitimate business ventures, despite Wocky's objections over leading them away from their roots. After discussing Wocky's treatment by Dr. Meraktis, Justice and Trucy decided they needed to investigate the clinic operated by Meraktis.

Stopping over at the Detention Center, Justice and Trucy were disheartened to find their client was unavailable for visitation. However, Wesley Stickler was available, so they decided to make the best of it and talk with him. Justice asked Stickler to recount his testimony from the trial. Stickler reaffirmed his words at the trial: he had seen Wocky pointing a gun at the victim and had shouted to the pair, causing Meraktis to turn his head and get shot in the temple. There was little doubt to be rendered that, in the very least, their client had been present at the scene at the time the victim died.

Having finished with Stickler, the pair ventured back to the Kitaki estate. There they met Plum Kitaki at the gate. Asking about Wocky, Plum said that her son put up a mean front but inside he didn't have the killer's instinct to pull the trigger on another person, which Justice agreed sounded reasonable coming from the defendant's mother. Unfortunately, because of the restrictions at the Kitaki mansion, the weapons cabinet was only accessible by herself, her husband, and their son, which made Wocky's defense that much harder. Plum also talked of her son's relationship with Alita Tiala, who in her eyes wasn't the ideal mate for Wocky, and she suspected something about her, but wrote it off as being in the crime business for too long. She repeated Tiala's words from earlier that the family was trying to reshape themselves, adding that they were in need of some "clean" money, despite their vast fortune built up as gangsters. Justice and Trucy re-examined the trash can where they found the broken mirror and retrieved the other item they couldn't carry last time from inside, the pair of paint-smeared slippers, then headed over to Guy Eldoon's house.

Eldoon thanked them for finding his noodle cart, but griped that, because it was the scene of a crime, it was still in police custody. He remarked that he didn't want to be a noodle vendor, but had been forced into it after Meraktis opened his clinic next door. Meraktis's success came off his connection with the Kitaki family mafia, making money off their turf battles with other crime families and treating their wounded. Based on his dislike of Meraktis, despite simply being a noodle vendor, Justice managed to decipher that Eldoon had been in a different profession prior to Eldoon's Noodles: surgery. Eldoon offered his support in their investigation of Dr. Meraktis, and Justice and Trucy returned to the Detention Center.

Now available for visitation, Wocky sat down with his attorney to discuss the case and to air his unhappiness over finding out how serious his condition was. When asked about his upcoming wedding to Alita Tiala and how unwilling she was to talk about what brought them together, Wocky said he would respect her decision and didn't divulge the circumstances either. Wocky reestablished for Justice his reason for his grudge towards the victim, claiming that the "botch" was actually Meraktis being paid off by the Rivales crime family. Wocky began complaining about his father's vision for the future of the Kitakis, and said that once he was on top, things would be going back to the way they were, the way he believed they should be. Justice asked his client about the weapons from the trial and Wocky confirmed they belonged to the Kitaki family and he had snuck them out of the house. Wocky had gone to the park, where he had run into Meraktis, who was pulling Eldoon's stand. At that point Wocky's recollection became uncertain on the order of events, but since Wocky himself remembered being at the scene when the victim was shot, he conceded that the most likely one to have done it was him.

Having investigated their existing leads as far as they could take them, Justice and Trucy agreed it was time to go into the Meraktis clinic to learn more. However, they found they were barred from entering, so they returned to People Park. At the park, a crowd of screaming girls was gathering around Klavier Gavin. Gavin mentioned that his motorcycle had stopped working due to a tailpipe clog, as any motorized vehicle would, and that he was taking it to be fixed so he could avoid running into Detective Ema Skye, who had a distaste for him. Inside the park, Skye was glumly carrying on her investigation, hopelessly trying to work on something on the ground. She told the duo that her dislike for Prosecutor Gavin stemmed from his involvement with Phoenix Wright's disbarment seven years prior, but said that if they wanted to know more, it would be better for them to find out on their own. Skye revealed what she had been trying to do when Justice and Trucy arrived: use a forensic kit designed to identify shoeprints. With Justice's help, she managed to pull some shoeprints from the scene, which confirmed the positions of all the known individuals in the park shooting (Wocky Kitaki and Wesley Stickler). However, one shoeprint on the scene didn't match any known participant. Bearing the silhouette a leaf on the underside as if someone had one stuck to their shoe, Justice took a closer look at the pair of slippers in their possession and noticed a very similar pattern on one of the slippers. He presented the slippers to Skye and she agreed the slippers were the ones that made the impression. Skye read the name on the slippers, which said "Meraktis Clinic". As gratitude for the help with the shoeprint identification, Skye offered to get Justice and Trucy into the clinic to continue their investigation and gave them a letter of authorization.

Dr. Meraktis' office.

Back at the Meraktis Clinic, Trucy handed the guard on duty Detective Skye's letter of permission and he was forced to yield access to the building. At the reception desk, Justice and Trucy began their investigation. They located an abandoned pair of sandals laying loosely near the desk, a mountain of noodle bowls from Eldoon's noodle cart, and a missing pair of sandals on the shoe rack. Just then the sound of an intruder was heard back in Dr. Meraktis's office. The pair entered the office, but the intruder had already escaped through the window. Justice suggested calling the authorities, but Trucy countered by saying they'd be better off investigating while they had the chance, which Justice conceded was for the best. A lamp on the floor with a broken bulb caught their attention and they noticed a small red-pinkish mark on the cord.

Upon examining the safe at the back of the office in closer detail, Justice discovered that whoever had been there before them had entered two digits before leaving. Realizing they had a tool at their disposal that could reveal what buttons had been touched, Trucy and Justice swabbed the safe keypad with fingerprint powder and revealed what buttons had been pressed. Decoding the combination unlocked a number of files and a small statute of a cat inside the safe. The topmost file was contained in an envelope and inside was an x-ray report for one Wocky Kitaki. Further inspection revealed it had been signed off by "Pal Meraktis" and, most tellingly of all, the name of the nurse assigned to Wocky was "Alita Tiala"! Unfortunately Trucy and Justice didn't have the understanding to interpret the information on the chart but they took it anyway in the hopes of finding someone who could. Examining the back of the safe, Justice noticed a squashed bullet wedged into the back of the safe. Trucy loosened it and the pair kept it as possible evidence.

Having completed a sweep of the clinic, Trucy and Justice returned to People Park to meet with Ema Skye. Before speaking with her, the pair examined the slippers they had found in the trash and the sandals they had found at the clinic. Discovering toe prints in each, they dusted the prints, but realized that there was no database for toeprints, so direct identification would be impossible. Skye suggested comparing the prints to each other, and by doing so, they discovered that whoever had worn the sandals also had worn the slippers at some point, as the prints matched. Justice and Trucy took their results and went to the Hickfield Clinic to meet with Phoenix. Justice asked Phoenix about the fateful trial that had ended his career, to which Phoenix said that he had been bested by a 17-year old Klavier Gavin and resigned. Justice didn't buy such a base explanation and pushed for more details, bringing up the fact that the trial had reportedly involved evidence forgery. He was reminded of his own first trial where Phoenix had pushed him to use illegal evidence but Phoenix refused to go any deeper so Justice and Trucy left.

The two returned to the Detention Center to talk to Wocky, who continued to proclaim his desire to take the fall for the "cred" and how disappointed he was in his father's change of direction. Justice showed his client the pair of sandals from the Meraktis Clinic, which Wocky identified as a gift he had given to his fiancée. Justice then showed Wocky the results from his examination by Dr. Meraktis and Tiala's name on the page, which confirmed how she and Wocky first met. Wocky said it had been during the incident six months prior, when he had been shot during the Rivales turf war. Tiala wanted to leave the clinic and asked Wocky to marry her if she did.

Justice and Trucy set back out for Eldoon's house. Justice showed Eldoon Wocky's chart and asked for his expertise on the matter. Upon reading the chart, Eldoon was horrified to learn that Wocky's condition was far worse than anyone believed. Eldoon stoically explained that the operation to remove the bullet from Wocky's heart had been too complex for Dr. Meraktis to handle. Given Wocky's status as the Kitakis' only son, Meraktis couldn't simply admit that he was incapable of helping, so he had covered it up. With the operation being six months prior, the normal activity of Wocky's body would have pushed the bullet even further in, and now it was very nearly killing him. Eldoon stated that Wocky was in no condition to be on trial, but in emergency care. Eldoon's explanation also made clear that Alita Tiala was aware of the complication with Wocky's initial surgery and had never told him how bad things were, leaving her motives for marrying him more uncertain.

The following morning, Trucy and Justice waited outside the courtroom for the day's proceedings to begin. Justice was sleep-deprived and Trucy tried to perk him up with Mr. Hat. A voice from behind Justice broke in and Phoenix Wright came over to join the pair, quipping he was bored of being at the Hickfield Clinic. He informed Justice that Prosecutor Gavin would be calling Alita Tiala to the stand; a strange choice given her status as the soon-to-be wife of the defendant.

The trial opened with the judge recounting the previous day's testimony from Wesley Stickler, who, in spite of questionable personal behavior, had clearly established that the defendant and victim had been seen in the same place in the time frame of the victim's death. Prosecutor Gavin segued this into his first move of the day: bringing Alita Tiala to the stand, whom he claimed had been privy to the defendant's plans for Meraktis.

Tiala claimed that she didn't want to testify, but had ultimately decided that telling the truth would be best. She testified that when the results of the family check-up had arrived, Wocky had become incensed at what he perceived as Meraktis's deception and taken a gun from the family's stash to hunt Meraktis down. Tiala claimed she couldn't see any other party being guilty except Wocky. Gavin confirmed that the bullet had matched the ballistic signature of the gun that Wocky had brought with him that night. During Justice's cross-examination, he challenged Tiala's claim that her fiancé was the only suspect with merit. On the subject of someone besides Wocky who could have access to the family's weapons, Justice accused Tiala herself, using her knowledge of Wocky's intent that day against her.

Gavin dismissed the possibility of Tiala trying to act on Wocky's behalf as irrational, but Justice countered by saying it might be more pertinent to examine a relationship between Tiala and Meraktis. He presented the chart he and Trucy had recovered from Meraktis's safe, showing Alita Tiala's name as the attending nurse. Tiala shrugged off the allegation and confirmed her previous employment at the clinic had ended on her own terms six months prior, meaning she didn't hold any current tie to the victim. However, Justice presented the sandals belonging to Tiala found at the Meraktis Clinic's reception, showing she was still connected to the clinic even now. Tiala didn't have an answer, but Gavin stepped in and forced her hand by pointing out the presence of toe prints that could link her to the sandals. The judge demanded a new testimony be given on her reasons for being at the clinic.

Tiala testified that she had come back to the clinic for the first time since January in order to alert Meraktis of Wocky's intentions. During the cross-examination, Justice objected to Tiala's claim that she wasn't withholding any dark secrets. Once again returning to the medical chart, Justice asked why this chart specifically was being locked away so tightly and that Tiala probably knew the answer. Since Meraktis didn't have the luxury of admitting he couldn't help Wocky, he had buried the real information, drawn up a false report, and had Tiala file it, which meant Tiala was in the same bind that Meraktis was in. The judge requested a testimony amendment, which Tiala resisted, but Justice's bracelet reacted. Focusing on her hands while she claimed she had no reason to return to the clinic for a half-year old medical chart, Justice saw her play with the ring on her finger. With the passage of six months since the chart was filed, her impending marriage was in jeopardy because of the contents of the file. The check-up results had come in and the x-ray of Wocky's chest would likely push the Kitakis to investigate into the matter further, and if Meraktis were pressured, he would likely give up the chart with Tiala's name on it.

Tiala admitted she had gone to see Meraktis because of the chart, but nothing else had happened. Justice objected using the bullet also found in the safe, claiming if the ballistic markings could be matched to the weapon that had been used to murder Meraktis, then something had indeed happened at the clinic on the day of the incident. The judge demanded a ballistic examination be done, which confirmed Justice's theory about the bullet's origin and allowed him to take it one step further: Alita Tiala had been holding the doctor at gunpoint and threatened him to open the safe. Tiala's knowledge of Wocky's real condition, coupled with the fact she had gotten engaged to him without actually divulging that, suggested she was not interested in him at all, which Gavin fueled with the mention of the Kitakis' legitimate growing fortunes. Although Wocky didn't want to believe what he was hearing, Tiala finally broke the façade and admitted she was trying to marry into the Kitakis for their money and that the engagement was a sham.

Tiala rebuffed the defense; while it was true that the chart gave her legitimate reason to go after Meraktis, none of the facts of the scene agreed with implements she had access to, since the gun had belonged to Wocky and he had never tried to claim anything to the contrary. Gavin interjected by claiming that if Tiala had needed to threaten Meraktis to open the safe to get the chart, she would certainly have taken what she had come for. The judge instructed Tiala to submit a new testimony about her actions on the day of the murder. Tiala said she had been unsuccessful in getting the chart on her first visit, so she had returned later. She denied stealing the gun and pointed to Wocky's presence at the scene, claiming that the doctor's wound was irrelevant. Her second attempt to get the chart had happened at the same time Justice and Trucy were investigating the clinic, meaning she was the intruder whom they had scared off.

The defense pressed her last statement about the doctor's gunshot. Gavin reestablished the scene, with the victim and defendant facing off and Wesley Stickler shouting from the south, causing the victim to expose his right temple to the gun. However, Justice objected, reminding the prosecution that Stickler had lied about where he was standing when he called out, being north of the defendant and victim and causing the victim to expose his left temple. This prompted some argument from Prosecutor Gavin, demanding that the defense rationalize the position of all the parties with the wound inflicted on the victim. Justice claimed that there was no way to do this without contradiction, meaning that the shooter was not at any of the known positions. Thus there could only be one possible location that would allow everything to work: the shooter was inside the noodle cart Meraktis was pulling!

To reaffirm his theory, Justice presented the slippers that had been found near the cart, and pointed to both the shoeprint found near the noodle stand at the scene, as well as the presence of Alita Tiala's toe print inside the left slipper, naming her as the person that Meraktis had been pulling inside the cart. The prosecution and defense went back and forth on the soundness of someone being inside the cart (such as the fact there was only one footprint left) until Justice presented the noodle bowl, recalling the large pile of noodle bowls seen at the clinic's reception desk. The removal of those bowls from the cart would make it possible to store a person within, and those bowls had to have been removed the night of the incident, the same time Tiala had been at the clinic. The judge ordered a new testimony be given about the night of the murder.

Meraktis strangling Tiala.

Tiala testified that she had gone to the clinic to get the chart from Meraktis for her own sake, but Meraktis had come under the impression that she was there on behalf of the Kitakis and refused, causing her to leave empty-handed. When the cross-examination began, Justice focused his attention on her final statement that she had simply talked to the doctor, then left. When she mentioned merely "talking" to him, Justice noticed she rubbed the side of her neck. Justice presented her with the lamp from Meraktis's office, which caused Tiala to reach for her neck once more. Justice asked her to remove her scarf, and upon doing so, Tiala's neck showed the signs of bruising caused by strangulation. Meraktis had attacked Tiala with the lamp cord when she threatened him to open the safe. However, since she had blacked out after the attack, claiming she had been the one to kill Meraktis later inside the noodle cart didn't seem feasible.

The judge began to end the cross-examination of the witness but an objection came from an unlikely source: Prosecutor Gavin. He challenged Justice over the facts as they stood; did they tell the entire tale? Justice restated the order of events: Wocky found out his medical results, swore revenge, Tiala learned of this and went to the clinic to get the chart back from Meraktis, and was attacked into unconsciousness. This scenario left Dr. Meraktis with a potentially dead body, forcing him to dispose of it, so he had stolen Guy Eldoon's noodle stand to carry her. He brought her body to the park in order to dispose of it in the river, but ran afoul of Wocky Kitaki instead. Wesley Stickler's attempt to break up the confrontation woke Tiala up, and she fired the pistol into Meraktis's right temple.

Tiala refused to admit to the sequence of events, instead deferring to Gavin to explain the irrationality of using a noodle stand when Meraktis had access to a car in his garage. At this point Trucy, offered an objection of her own, claiming that there was a chance the car was not functional on that night, forcing Meraktis to have to employ another means to carry Tiala's body. Gavin retorted that the car had still been running normally when it had hit Phoenix Wright. Justice thought hard and knew that the car was not functioning, presenting Trucy's magic panties to the court as his proof. Recounting the story of Wesley Stickler's theft, Stickler had ditched the panties in the tailpipe of the car inside the clinic's garage. As attested to by Prosecutor Gavin the previous day, vehicles could be disabled by clogging their tailpipes.

Tiala about to shoot Meraktis from inside the noodle stand.

Tiala was finally unable to argue against Justice's logic and admitted to being the shooter. She remembered waking up inside the noodle stand hearing Dr. Meraktis and Wocky arguing. Alarmed that Dr. Meraktis was about to expose everything, she desperately raised her gun and fired through the curtain of the noodle cart. She had escaped from the scene when Stickler had run to use a public phone to call the authorities. Meraktis had left the slippers on her feet, and she had thrown them away after stepping in the spilled paint, leaving them to be found by Justice and Trucy. She then revealed that her request for defense was not because she wanted Wocky acquitted, but because as a rookie attorney, she believed Justice would fail and Wocky would be convicted. With no further deliberation necessary, the judge handed down a verdict of "Not Guilty" for Wocky Kitaki.

Justice and Trucy met in the defendant lobby after the end of the case. Trucy remarked that Wocky was now free to live his life as the gangster he had always desired. Unfortunately, Wocky was not so enthused, still angry over Alita Tiala's confession and seemingly unaware that he had been a mere pawn in her scheme. Winfred Kitaki inserted himself into the discussion, trying to get Wocky to finally wise up, while Wocky continued to admonish his father's change of direction. Justice showed Wocky the medical chart, explaining that his father's need to change lifestyles was for his benefit. With the money raised by their legitimate business ventures, Winfred was able to find a doctor capable of operating on Wocky's heart. Overcome with emotion, Wocky ran out of the courthouse to be alone and Winfred expressed his gratitude to the defense team. Alone again, Trucy encouraged Justice to follow her back to the Wright Anything Agency. Figuring that she was a helpful assistant and that there were still a lot of lingering questions that needed answers (such as Trucy's understanding of Apollo's "Perceive" ability), he agreed, though not without his reservations about Phoenix Wright. Trucy also said she wanted to get their reward of salty noodles from Guy Eldoon and also invited Justice to watch her magic show with Mr. Hat, which was someone Justice had quite enough of during the previous day's trial.

This case is similar to the case in which Turner Grey was murdered. The victim is a doctor with his own clinic; the murderer was previously a nurse at the doctor's clinic; the murder weapons are a knife and a gun; a car accident is involved; a Japanese-themed family is involved; and both happen in June. Even "Hickfield" makes an appearance here, whereas Director Hotti—a man who either is the same person under a different name, or is just a doppelganger—made his first appearance during the Turner Grey case.

If Justice inspects the stepladder in the garage, he will refer to it as a ladder. Trucy will then butt in and correct him. This a reference to a running joke in the Ace Attorney series, during which whenever Wright's assistants called a stepladder a ladder, he would correct them, only to then be scolded for his pedantry.

Wocky's relationship with Tiala is comparable to Phoenix Wright's relationship with Dahlia Hawthorne to an extent; both Tiala and Hawthorne took advantage of their lovers (who were genuinely in love), and even framed them for a murder.

While examining the car in the Meraktis Clinic's garage, Justice states that he once read a report about a case that Phoenix Wright worked on many years previously. In said case, there a piece of cloth shoved into the tailpipe of a car that turned out to be a vital clue in solving the case. Justice goes on to say that he is reminded of that case whenever he checks out a car, and hence always checks the tailpipe. This is a reference to Rise from the Ashes from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney in which Lana Skye shoved a scarf wrapped around a knife into the tailpipe of Miles Edgeworth's car.

This case contains the only two allusions to Phoenix Wright's old assistant Maya Fey in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, neither of which mention her by name. The first is in the Hickfield Clinic, where Phoenix is recovering from his hit-and-run and Justice notes the many children's action hero show DVDs beside his bed, including the Steel Samurai, The Nickel Samurai and Pink Princess. Phoenix then tells Justice that "This "kid" [he] know[s] keeps sending them to [him]". The second instance is when Justice first meets Guy Eldoon, who proceeds to mention that Phoenix often frequented his father's noodle stand with "his assistant" back during "his attorney days".

When talking about Phoenix Wright's last case, it is mentioned that Klavier took the bar exam in Europe and that "they're progressive over there". This could be a reference to two otherprosecutors in the series who took the bar exam at very young ages.

When looking at the Kitaki family crest, Trucy says that Justice needs a crest, and suggests the scales of justice or a lunar lander. Both are likely references to his name; the former obviously referring to his surname, while the latter may be a reference to the Apollo Lunar Modules that were used in the Apollo space program.